Tenrou Coffee
by sydneythecat
Summary: The coffee's great... But the people are freakin' nuts. The unexpected appearance of a breathtaking phenomenon makes them all lose it just a little bit more than normal, and leads some people right into others' open arms... / Just a fluffy little magic-free AU involving Gajevy, Nalu, Bixanna, Miraxus / Rated T for language and some adult themes.
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Fairy Tail or any of its characters. This story is mine though, bitches._

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><p>Their first encounter was anything but hopeful.<p>

She had been sitting at the table right in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the little café at the peak of its afternoon rush, looking for all the world as though she was on a deserted island with no disruptions or distractions to be seen for miles. A waitress had damn near spilled an entire tray of croissants right on her head in all its blue-curled, bird's nest, ignorant bliss, and had managed to smack them at just the right time to keep them from touching her. They did, however, continue to fall and crashed in a bready heap on the floor. Several customers had started toward the poor server as she fussed with the food on the ground, throwing it all back onto the tray and apologizing more loudly than was necessary, but she begged them to sit back down, saying this was her job, and nearly started crying in her fit of panic when the manager came out and tenderly removed the weepy waitress, coming back out a moment later to clean up the mess himself. It'd been a solid fifteen minutes of raucous, unpleasant, uncomfortable noise, and she hadn't even batted an eyelash. She'd just continued to sit at the little round table for two, her mountainous stack of books occupying most of it, and flip through page after page of the thick tome in her dainty little hands. So, he watched her. She would shift in her seat every now and again, tuck an errant lock of that shocking hair behind her ear once in a while, but save for those miniscule movements, she was the epitome of concentration and stillness. It was one last miniscule movement that started a storm in her body, and all he could do was try to hold back his laughter at the performance she began to put on.

It started with a wide smile stretching across her pale pink lips, and her hand reaching into her bag. She extracted a pencil, and a phone. Still grinning like an excited idiot, she carefully underlined something in the book, set the pencil down and sat back to admire her work. Her smile grew so wide it forced her doll-like eyes shut, the skin crinkling in an endearing way around their edges as a soft chuckle flew from her mouth. Content with her work, though he wouldn't call what she'd been doing "work" himself, she checked her phone.

Whatever she saw had her suddenly fumbling around the table like a marionette doll cut from its strings, scooting books and glasses this way and that, and it occurred to him then that she was trying to procure a bookmark of any form whatsoever.

His eyes tingled with curiosity as he watched the blunette search for something, anything to mark her place, seemingly desperate to avoid leaving a dog-ear crease on the page of her book. He grinned, stood, and sidled over to her table, the noises of the café disguising his footsteps. He continued to study her as she rummaged through her bag – which was nearly the size of her whole upper body – and that did nothing to speak for the size of the bag, instead speaking volumes of her compact stature. _What a shrimp_, he mused.

His grin grew wider as he pulled the chair opposite hers out and plopped into it with one swift movement, doing nothing to quiet the screech of wooden leg against brick floor or keep from jostling the small round table between him and the girl.

Her surprise was a short cry and a startled jump and his sides were aching from holding in his guffaws at the sight of one hand flying to her throat while the other raised in some sort of… fist, if you could call it that. The way her thumb was pressed inside the ball of fingers would break the entire appendage if she'd actually had to swing a punch his way.

"Sorry," he grumbled, still trying to cage the laughter in his chest. "Wasn't tryin' t'scare ya." Her head tilted, her enormous brown eyes gleaming with something he couldn't quite place… It made him sorely uncomfortable, and he realized that blood had started to rush to his cheeks. _Dammit,_ he cursed inwardly. He cleared his throat loudly; trying to snap her out of whatever thoughts she was getting lost in. The staring was unnerving and he'd rather die than get caught blushing about it.

"You're not from around here, are you?" She stated as she came back to reality, and he understood. _So his accent had thrown her for a loop, was all?_

"Nah," the man admitted. "From up north quite a ways."

But the words had fallen upon deaf ears, as the little blunette had finally found a satisfactory bookmark in the form of a napkin beneath one of her many empty coffee cups. Her look of victory was a determined one, and, he noted, he'd like to see it again. She threw it on the page and hastily snapped the book shut, tossed it into her bag, and stood to gather her things.

"Oi!" He said, his face a picture of confusion. "Wait, where ya goin'?" But she was still zooming around in her chair like an expertly contained whirlwind, shoveling her incredibly high stack of books into her oversized bag and stowing her bright red glasses inside their hard case.

"M'sorry," she mumbled after throwing her pencil between her lips and speedily tying her hair up into a more elaborate bun than he thought would be the product of such a short second of work. _How did women do things like that so quick?_ He thought, waiting for her to explain why she was running off so damn fast.

"M' late fer work," she spoke again around the pencil, her clear pronunciation sacrificed in the process.

"Oh."

And that was all he had the luxury of saying as the short, impossibly pale, and ridiculously cute girl nearly flew past him, out the door, and onto the snowy Magnolia street beyond the café's warm walls… without even a wave. Well, it's not like she had a hand to wave with, what with carrying that monstrosity of a bag and a cup of coffee almost as big as her head as well as the laptop she'd tucked beneath her left arm. But… he didn't even get a wave. He'd been observing this girl in all her strange, quirky, tunnel-vision glory for the last hour and he didn't even get a wave?

His shoulders slumped and his face morphed into an irritated grimace that even a mother would have trouble loving. He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair so far that it began to teeter on its hind legs, when suddenly he was upside down face-to-face with one of the white-haired baristas he'd seen shelling out latte after latte during the earlier rush. Not being one to startle easily, unlike that bird of a woman he just knew he wouldn't be able to get out of his head, he just looked at her sardonically.

"Yeah, what?"

"She comes here everyday around eleven."

With that, the shorthaired girl winked, and skipped back over to join her sister at the espresso machine to leave Gajeel to his flustered, blustering coughs as he did his best to look as though he didn't actually give two shits Bluebird showed up 'round here at eleven every damn day, even going as far as to holler those same words to the meddling barista as she smirked at him from behind the counter.

Truth was, if the fact that the blush he'd been fighting since her entrancing brown eyes had stared at him was now glowing almost fluorescently across the bridge of his oddly pierced nose was any indication, he gave two shits. And then some.

He stood up and straightened his coat, turning to leave when he saw the same shorthaired barista giving him a strong side-eye, that stupid devilish smirk still plastered on her face. With all the dignity of a six-year-old kid, Gajeel stuck his tongue out, turned tail and all but stomped out of the café.

The snowy breeze hit him full in the face and he puffed out the last bit of warm breath the cozy shop had given his lungs, and turned to look through the glass doors toward the coffee bar. She was still looking at him, that waitress. But this time, she genuinely smiled and raised her hand in the air as she gave him a thumbs up. "Everyday at eleven!" She over-dramatically mouthed, and went back to her drink orders. He felt the neon blush light his skin up again, and ducked his nose and chin beneath the thick wool of his scarf.

_Every day?_ He thought as he began to make his way home.

_What's got you comin' here every damn day, Bluebird?_

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><p>"Looked all right to me," Lisanna said with a cheerful smile to her sister as she dumped the espresso grounds into the trash. The lining of the bag slipped off of the edge of the can and she dropped an "F" bomb as the grounds she had just poured in splattered all over the inside of the can, and instantly received a sharp smack on the back of her head. She reached up and rubbed the sore spot, wincing as she turned to face her older sister. The spitting image of their mother and near twin to Lisanna, save for the exception of the waterfall of snowy curls that ended just above her hips, Mirajane stood tall with her arms crossed over her chest, one brow arched so high it ended up being hidden by the edge of her bangs and consequently lost all the condescending effect it might have had otherwise.<p>

"You aren't allowed to say that," Mira stated, before taking the espresso machine's grounds drawer from Lisanna's hands and shaking the rest of its contents into the trash bag and then cleaning off the mess her little sister had made.

"Oh, but you can?" Lisanna replied, placing her hands on her hips indignantly.

"Yeah," Mira shot back, re-tying the garbage bag to the edges of the trashcan, tugging on the knot for good measure. She dusted her hands off and turned back to face her little sister. "I fucking can." She thrust the grounds drawer into the shorthaired girl's stomach as if for emphases, letting it go before Lisanna had grabbed it. She was quick, though, and caught the drawer effortlessly. She sighed, and walked over to slide it back into the machine, before turning around to lean against the counter.

"All I'm saying..." She began, tilting her head. "He's the exact opposite of the last guy Levy was with."

"He's said all of ten words to you, _yelled_ seven of those ten at you, and you're already rooting for him?" Her sister said sarcastically from where she scrubbed what seemed like hundreds of coffee cups in the sink by the prep station. Mirajane didn't trust easily. But where she lacked faith, her sister believed. Lisanna had faith, and she could read people like open books. Whether one was a consequence of the other, Mira couldn't say, but Lisanna did always seem to be able to feel out a person pretty accurately - sometimes even before she'd spoken to them.

"I'm a great judge of character, sis. Always have been," she exclaimed, voicing her sister's thoughts as she grinned and brandished an enthusiastic thumbs up.

"Always the positive one," Mira commented with a smirk, continuing to clean the cups. "And always with the thumbs up! What is this, the 90's?"

Lisanna laughed, then busied herself with refilling the syrup bottles and continued on with her reasoning on why she had such high hopes for the stranger with all the piercings and their dearest Levy McGarden.

"Anyway, Todd was a straight laced, bookish type. Like Levy. I mean, I know there were other reasons why they ended things, but one of the big ones has to be that all they ever did was... well, read, right?"

"Y'got that right," a new voice chimed in as a bodacious brunette emerged from the stock room. "T-dog was a total snooze." She popped a flask, a discrete black color, from her apron pocket and took a quick swig before stashing it again.

"Hey, Cana," Mirajane called. "Can you get Elfman to bring out the new milk steamer and set it up? This one's been burning all my goddamn foam."

"He's on lunch, sweets."

"Fuck."

**"WHY CAN'T I SAY IT?"**

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><p>Levy dashed through the parking lot after practically launching herself from the bus before it had even come to a full stop, her scarf and coat whipping around her petite form, falling easy prey to the harsh wind's commanding gusts. The snow was coming down thick now, each flake looking fatter than the last, and she could smell the beginning of a storm in the air.<p>

"Sleet," she mumbled, grimacing at the thought. The bus stops on the way to her apartment were severely lacking in shelter from the elements, not a single one boasting an awning or any shelter whatsoever. She shivered in disdain, already apprehensive about the journey home. She pushed the thoughts aside as she leaned her side against the heavy oak door, shoving it open with her hip. The warmth of the library's interior wrapped around her and she audibly sighed, letting her eyes slip shut so as to bask in the euphoria of relief from wintry Magnolia.

She didn't have time to revel in the coziness, however, and she quickly came back to reality and continued rushing toward the office. She had to put her stuff in her locker and hang her coat up and clock in before-

"Miss McGarden?"

Shit.

"Mr. Justine! I'm so sorry," and for a brief moment Levy pondered what it would be like to lie to her boss, but the mere thought had her nearly breaking out in hives and so she explained her lateness in all honesty. "I was researching a lost language at Tenrou and neglected to set an alarm..." She looked down and shuffled her feet nervously, tugging on her lower lip with her teeth and avoided meeting her boss's gaze at all costs.

"Levy, dear," came the startlingly gentle reply. His tone of voice coaxed her out of her nervous shell and she stood up straight. "I am not Evergreen. You're only five minutes late; hardly a punishable offense." He smiled at her, and she found herself smiling appreciatively in return. "I won't breathe a word of it if you don't." He said, and with a short bow from the waist, he winked, and walked off toward the east branch of the library. She let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding, and giggled in relief as she scurried on to the staff office.

The room was empty, and Levy was grateful for it. She made quick work of filling her locker up with all her belongings, expertly managing to fit every last thing into the narrow metal closet. She removed her coat and grabbed it by the collar and stood a good ten feet away from the rack. She squared her shoulders, widened her stance, tongue darting out to rest on her lip in concentration, and suddenly spun herself in a manic pirouette. She spun once, twice, three times, and then flung the coat through the air toward the coat rack with an embellished flourish of her left leg, pointing out as if she was some kind of jacket-flinging ballerina. The coat landed safely on the last open hook of the rack, and Levy's eyes bulged as she hooped and hollered in celebration.

A slow, singular round of applause began behind her, and she whirled around, ready to be embarrassed out of her mind, only to find that it was her best friend Lucy Heartfilia who was genuinely applauding her efforts. "You did it! You've got to work on that spin, though. Looked a little... what's the word?"

"Too graceful for human eyes to comprehend?" Levy interjected with a grin and another flourish of pointed legs and sweeping hands.

"Clumsily orgasmic," Lucy supplied with a grin.

Levy squeaked and turned bright red, rushing over to smack her laughing friend on the shoulders with all the mock force her tiny frame could manage.

"It did! It looked like you were having your first ever big "O" and-" Levy slapped a hand over Lucy's mouth, but Lucy continued to guffaw around her tiny fingers and soon Levy was giggling along with her, her cheeks pink and eyes bright and happy.

After their fit of giggles subsided, Levy walked over to the punch cards and clocked herself in. She began easy conversation with Lucy while she pinned her hair up a little bit more neatly than she'd done at Tenrou, and fastened her nameplate to her shirt. Lucy discussed her weekend with her hotheaded boyfriend, whom Levy had yet to meet, and Levy informed Lucy of the breakthrough she'd found while studying up on the lost languages of the Fiorean people earlier that morning. Just as the discussion turned to ancient syntax, a very angry, _very_ haughty woman burst through the door to the staff office.

"And just what do you two think you're doing?" Evergreen sneered, giving the pair a glare that threatened to turn them both to stone. Her presence alone was domineering beyond reason, but when she turned her eyes on you... Well, you better start groveling. So, that's what Levy did.

"Evergreen, I'm so sorry, we were jus-"

"We were just discussing the ancient syntax of the lost national language of Fiore. A customer asked Levy earlier if we had any books on it, and she was asking me." Lucy answered coolly, cutting Levy off. "I was just about to give Levy my recommendations." The blonde smiled easily, even jutting a hip out slightly to adopt a more relaxed stance in the presence of their second-in-command, perfectly feigning an air of calm and collected and _yes we were definitely doing our job and no she was certainly not late_.

Evergreen surveyed them harshly, looking for any flaw in Lucy's story. Levy had caught on very quickly though, and was trying to blend into the easy, chill picture Lucy had painted for the both of them. "Well..." The intimidating woman began, "I suggest you finish up quickly. Laki is about to take her lunch and we need someone at returns." With that, she turned on her heel, and sashayed out of the staff office.

Lucy grinned triumphantly, and Levy looked about ready to melt into a puddle. Before she could, though, the blonde grabbed her hand, shook her awake and gave her a good bop on the forehead.

"Don't be late again. I'm good at lying, but I don't like doing it."

"Oh, I guess that's why you want to write fiction?"

"That's different!"

"When's the next chapter going to be finished? Lucy, _pleeease_ let me read it as soon as it's done!"

And with that, the excited pair strolled out into Magnolia's public library and began another afternoon of work.

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><p><strong><em>AN: _**_Okay, so first thing's first: Lisanna never disappeared in this AU, therefore there is never a catalyst that makes Mira into the sweet, sugary princess she became. She's still the sassy, rough around the edges Mira that I personally love the most. Secondly: There will be other minor pairings. But only briefly. This story will be Gajevy-centric, so don't expect me to pander to the masses. Thirdly: no lemons. Bye, Felicia._

_Please review! Thanks for reading. :) xo syd_


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. I do own this story, though. It's mine. Totally. _

_And also I love Bixanna. Sassy cute lil' shits._

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><p>Lisanna exhaled gruffly, pushing the rough sponge in her hands down harder onto the dirty, stainless steel countertop. There were coffee stain rings as far as the eye could see, not to mention the fact that she hadn't even swept or mopped the floor yet and the register wasn't balanced, and the pastries needed to be wrapped and shelved, and the chairs were still scattered haphazardly about the café floor from that annoying group of teeny-boppers that had been so fucking loud earlier, and Mira…<p>

Mirajane had abandoned her. For a piece of ass.

Her brain was busy bursting inside her skull as she considered all the unfortunate factors of her predicament, the most infuriating one being that she had only twenty minutes left to complete her tasks and close Tenrou up for the night… when the bell above the shop's door jingled to announce a new and unwelcome presence.

_Wait, I was supposed to lock that!_ Lisanna thought in a panic, and she reached out to grab the first thing near her that could be remotely considered a weapon and hoisted it above her head. She screwed as threatening an expression as she could muster onto her heart-shaped face, and steeled her resolve. It was nine o'clock and the only people that hung around this part of town at this time of night were bums and the occasional thief; she wasn't about to be taken for a victim by either kind.

The sight that greeted her, though, after she'd 180'd in all her "don't come any closer, I have a milk-steaming pitcher and I'm not afraid to use it" glory was a face and spiky blue hair she just knew she'd seen before… But the unique, and quite frankly regrettable placement of his tattoo was throwing her off from connecting the dots.

The black doll in question danced as his nose wrinkled and raucous laughter burst from his incredibly wide mouth. She watched as even his tongue fell out of the seemingly endless chasm in his fit of exuberant guffawing. His shoulders were broad and his hips were narrow, attached to a set of legs that made up for probably seventy-five percent of her full height, and she noted that his eyes were the most peculiar shade of green she had ever seen.

_Cute…_ she admitted to herself. Well, more than just cute, really. And she could definitely forgive that tattoo.

She scrambled to speak, wondering briefly what to say – she knew him, that was for sure, but she could not, to even save her own life, remember his name. Lisanna gave him another once-over and noticed his naked hands, briefly thinking how beautiful she weirdly found them, before saying the first thing that came to her mind.

"You idiot, it's freezing; where are your gloves?" She said out loud.

He stopped laughing immediately, looking at her in a dumbstruck way. She still had the pitcher raised above her head like it was going to shoot a cannonball from its recess if she so willed, and the expression on her face was the most hilarious mixture of gravely serious and hopelessly confused that he had ever seen and all he could do was descend into another round of explosive giggles, the force of them nearly sending him to his knees.

"You're…cuter than last time… I seen ya, Lis," He managed to cough out around each peal of laughter.

She blinked at him owlishly. He knew her name?

"This place could use a better security system, though!" He stopped laughing finally and crossed the café floor to close the distance between them. He leaned onto the counter separating them and a happy smile settled into the familiar set of his mouth as he waved a hand in front of her face. "Hellooo, anybody home?"

_Who are you? I mean I kind of want to kiss you, but who are you?_ Lisanna could only stare curiously at the semi-stranger while her mind fought to no avail to recall any memory of him she could possibly have. There was only an infuriatingly vague familiarity.

Abandoning any semblance of manners, he poked her right in the forehead in an effort to rouse her from her thoughts. "Wake up, baby!"

Her response was pure reflex. She smacked his hand away and crossed her arms, giving him the cold shoulder as the words "don't call me baby, Bixlow," flew from her mouth for the first time in six years. Her eyes snapped open and her jaw dropped as it dawned on her.

"Oh my god!" She squealed, running around the counter and flinging herself at the man excitedly. "You're so tall now!" Open arms pulling her into a firm chest swallowed her words. His jacket muffled her giggles and one of those beautiful hands came up to ruffle her snowy locks.

He laughed loudly and it reverberated through her small frame. "Took ya long enough, hippie!" She simply beamed up at him, making him shoot a smile for the ages right back at her. He tilted his head in fascination and reached up to gently poke the turquoise nose stud in her left nostril, eliciting a soft "youch!" from the girl. "This is new," he said, with a tone so questioning it almost sounded disapproving. Which is exactly how Lisanna took it.

"Really? 'Cause what's on your face?" She immediately shot back, and he only laughed again in response. He bent down and sniffed her head overdramatically. "Y'smell like coffee and bleach."

The reason why she never acted upon the urge to kiss him all those years ago was making itself ever so subtly known, and she grimaced and shrugged out of his hug. She went one step further and smacked him in the stomach before scurrying off behind the bar again. Bixlow remained unfazed, however, still grinning ear to ear at the youngest Strauss as she went back to busying herself with cleaning the countertop.

He unabashedly observed her curvaceous rump, noting how different it looked from when they were just freshmen in college. He didn't even try to fight the blush that crept onto his unseasonably tanned cheeks.

"I see the nose impalement isn't the only thing that's new," he said lowly, waggling his eyebrows.

She spun around to glare at him. "Stop staring at my ass or I will turn your skull into bone meal with my great security system," she spat as she grabbed the milk-steaming pitcher and brandished it mock-threateningly.

Bixlow snorted and covered his blush with his arm and waved his other hand in surrender, chuckling like a bashful child. He shook his head and dared to meet Lisanna's gaze again, a sweet and surprisingly small smile replacing his usual overdrawn grin. Her eyes rested on his mouth for a moment before flitting back up to meet his own, finding their expression uncharacteristically gentle. She felt her heart start to do jumping jacks behind her ribcage when he pushed a hand through that midnight blue disarray he called hair and coughed nervously, the blush on his cheeks taking on a neon hue.

"You know, I-"

"OH MY GOD!" Lisanna all but shrieked for the second time that evening, her eyes growing wider than saucers as she suddenly looked out the window, past the flustered man. Bixlow cocked an eyebrow, turning around to see what she was gawking at.

"Holy shit, Northern Lights!" His trademark smile burst into life again on his lips. "I ain't ever seen 'em, wh-" But he was cut off again as Lisanna reappeared in front of the counter, latching onto his large hands with her doll fingers and pulling him behind the partition with her.

"You have to help me finish this, do you have a car?" He nodded, still being tugged along by the petite girl. He couldn't help but revel in the fact that she was holding his hands. Too soon for Bixlow's taste, though, she let go and disappeared into the backroom. No more than seven seconds later, she emerged with a mop and broom in hand and a bucket of soapy water in tow.

"Do the floors," she practically barked as she thrust the tools into his grasp.

He opened his mouth to protest and received a wickedly terrifying glare from Lisanna that froze him to the bones.

"Yes'm" he squeaked, wondering if in a past life Lisanna had been a fearsome bird of prey. She certainly made him feel like a worm with so little effort.

"Or maybe a scary ass Tiger…" He muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, ma'am!" He mockingly sang to her before sticking his lengthy tongue out. She returned the gesture, equally as maturely, and sent quite the stink-eye his way before turning back to her work.

_Lucy's gonna be furious,_ Lisanna thought with an anxious shudder. She pulled out her phone to send Mira a quick text message to inform her of the situation, and then she busied herself with removing the remaining stains and then setting out all the pastries that needed wrapping and stowing. The reunited pair cleaned like the wind as the Aurora Borealis swirled loftily in Magnolia's wintry heavens above.

_But… what a nice surprise,_ she warmly mused, casting an affectionate glance toward Bixlow and then out the windows at the mystifying kaleidoscope sky.

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><p>The rest of their afternoon shift had gone off without a hitch, and the near meeting of their maker by way of Levy's sorely lacking punctuality was swiftly forgotten. Freed had bid the staff goodnight and goodbye around seven, and Evergreen had made her exit not too long after the boss man's disappearance.<p>

"I have a date," she huffed, managing to look haughty enough to spoil the pretty makeup she'd applied for said engagement. Levy just smiled and asked the second-in-command to say hello to Elfman for her, and Evergreen turned an impressive shade of fuscia but simply nodded. As they watched her retreating back, Lucy and Levy both pondered the same thing: _why was she still so bashful about dating Elfman after nearly two years of playing one of the lead roles in the most awkward production of "Sexual Tension" to have ever taken place?_

After that, the library had gone mostly quiet. One by one as their shifts ended, fellow coworkers departed until it was only Lucy, Levy, and Reedus that remained.

Reedus was from a French province to the east and Levy was always happy to have him around; his keen insight into the contrast between Magnolian tongue and his native language was rare as he was so effortlessly fluent in both languages, and extremely helpful to her research. They organized shelf after endless shelf, carrying on about varying conjugations and the like when the clock struck eighty thirty and loudly announced with its overbearing chimes that it was Reedus' turn to clock out and leave the pair of girls to clean up, lock up, and leave.

They watched him go, giggling at his gentlemanly tip of the hat before taking his leave. They locked the door behind him after sending a few cheerful "Au revoír!"s his way.

The remainder of the evening's tasks were completed one by one, and time passed by uneventfully. At just past nine thirty, Lucy and Levy ambled out of the Magnolia Public Library. Their eyes were tired and their arms were encumbered by a plethora of various novels and scientific journals: an overwhelming amount of research material for the homework assigned by their boss's assistant. But neither the weight of the books nor the sleepless nights they implied did anything to stop the laughter from spilling out of their widely smiling faces.

The state of the sky, however, shut them up quite quickly.

Their giggling ceased in record time and the only noise that could be heard was the muted thud of the library's door behind them as it drifted shut. Their gaze ascended, and their easy happiness morphed into slack-jawed reverence.

"I thought you said it wasn't sup-"

"It wasn't supposed to happen until tomorrow night!" Lucy interrupted her friend with a cry of utter disbelief, fighting off the hypnotic trance into which the lights were trying to lull her. Her facial expression was shifting back and forth between monumental agitation and overwhelming excitement. Levy had to stifle her snort, fancying her friend quite the cartoon with her rapid-fire change of emotions.

Lucy Heartfilia, amateur she may be, was a gifted aspiring astrologist and meteorologist and the word "miscalculation" was not present in her vocabulary. However, the stunning Aurora Borealis danced, contracting and expanding high above Earthland as if happily exclaiming to the blonde that it decided to show up early and defy all logic and science in the process.

Lucy spun around, a whirlwind of wildly flailing limbs to gape at Levy, her hands moving to fist into her hair so desperately the blunette was sure she'd free every last strand from the root.

"We have to call everyone!"

Levy was two steps ahead of her, though, already saying hello to Mirajane on her cell phone.

"Yeah, we just saw it… Who could've guessed? …Oh, Lisanna told you?" There was a pause and Levy laughed nervously, a blush forming on her porcelain cheeks.

"Tell him he can come, sans birthday suit. I'll get hold of Cana; she'll be sure to let everyone else know. Yeah, the park… By the cherry tree! See you in ten." Levy went to hang up, but suddenly pressed the phone back to her ear as Mira put in a last word. "Oh yeah, she's freaking out exponentially," Levy smirked at Lucy. "I can see the pit stains."

"SCREW YOU, I SWEAT WHEN I'M NERVOUS, HURRY UP," An exasperated Lucy cried as she sprinted to her car, fuming more than a stranger would think possible for the pretty blonde. Levy laughed and said her goodbyes to Mira before hanging up and jogging hurriedly after her friend.

She looked straight up as she ran, gazing at the sky in breathless awe.

"I thought it was going to storm tonight," Levy said after hopping into the car and pulling the door shut.

"You're an idiot, the conditions in no way indicated a storm would be here tonight. The cold front isn't due for another week and besides, with the Aurora Borealis supposed to be happening tomorrow night it wouldn't make any logical sense for a storm to move in and…" Lucy rambled off, trying to reason with herself on why her calculation had gone awry as she descended into an internal war she was sure to lose.

She'll never admit it was a defeat, though, Levy thought with a good-natured smirk as she laughed at her friend. Lucy had no time for jokes, however, and threw the car into gear so hard Levy jolted from her seat and smacked into the dashboard with an "OOF."

"SEATBELT, NOW," Lucy commanded, and they sped off toward the park with Levy clinging to her seat like a lifeline the entire time.

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><p>Natsu Dragneel was snoring peacefully in his bed, his chest rumbling with each deep, slumbering breath his lungs pulled in. Every breath he took allowed the scent of crisp rainfall to waft over his subconscious senses, the fragrance of his favorite (and coincidentally cheapest option at the market) body wash still clinging to his freshly cleaned form.<p>

That's literally all he had done that evening: showered, and dragged his battered body into bed. He was currently going through a rigorous, four-week long firefighting training course at the city's fire department, and each day left him increasingly more ragged and exhausted than the last. The trainers sent him through ten mile military style obstacle courses on the outskirts of town, stood on his shoulders as he completed ten sets of fifty push ups in the mud, and clung to his back while he saved their lives in the "Burnt Ass Building" simulation their head trainer was so fond of running. It wore him to the barest bone.

The bright side, however, was that his teachers were exceedingly pleased with his performance. Three weeks into the training and he was still the only trainee who had yet to toss their cookies from the fierce physical exertion. Not only that – he hadn't uttered a single complaint. Granted, it just wasn't in his nature to whine, but nonetheless his higher-ups were no less than inspired by the young recruit's performance.

That wasn't to say that the hotheaded man wasn't absolutely dog-tired by the time he stumbled through the door to his two-bedroom apartment each evening. In fact, that might be an understatement.

And so, he slept. It wasn't simple dozing, or a momentary siesta. The way Natsu was sleeping could only be likened to a living vegetable: too tired to dream, too deadbeat to stir. Just resounding snores and the occasional muscle spasm in his aching feet.

Naturally, it would come as no surprise that the sudden blaring ringing of his cell phone had no effect on his ears. He was beyond hearing, after all the screeching whistles and screaming alarms from today's drills, and simply continued to snuffle and snore.

Soon enough, the phone stopped ringing. Too soon after that, it began to ring again. Still, no response from Natsu was elicited.

One was, however, more than just elicited from his furious older brother as he nearly kicked down the door to Natsu's bedroom with a "ANSWER YOUR FUCKING PHONE, BRAT," soaring from his scowling mouth with the slightest of ease.

And yet the brat in question made no move to do anything other than remain asleep.

His brother scowled even more angrily, if that's even conceivable, and snatched the offending cellular device from the bedside table where it had been hooked up to charge. The name "Lucy" was glowing brightly on the screen. He noted with some mild disgust that there was a heart-eyed, lovesick emoticon next to her contact name. _Y'got it bad, brother. Yeugh._

"Yeah?" The man barked as soon as he answered the call.

"Uh... Hello?" A timid voice on the other side of the line chirped through the scratchy reception.

"Yeah, hello. There's someone obviously here," he replied, already losing patience with this Lucy girl.

"Oh, well, hey. I'm Levy, your girlfriend's best friend. We haven't met yet but HOLY SHIT LUCY SLOW DOWN," the girl shrieked and the sound of squealing brakes could be heard through the speaker of the phone.

"Oi! You 'bout t'die or somethin'?"

"No, no, sorry, we're fine."

"Oh. Okay. You ain't Lucy?"

"…No?" The tiny voice chirped again, and the man fell face first into an enormous pile of confusion.

"Yer Letty?"

"Le_vy_," she corrected, sounding as though she was about to swallow her lower lip with the way she over pronounced the "v" in her name.

"Is this… Is this Natsu?"

"Nah."

"Lucy, it's not Natsu. The number must be wrong," her voice faded slowly as she pulled the phone away and he deduced that she was about to hang up, and jumped into action.

"No, no, I'm his brother! I'm Gajeel! He's sleepin', what did y'need?" He quickly barked, growing progressively louder in panic that the girl might hang up.

"Gajeel?" The little thing chirped one more time before the phone was snatched away from Gajeel's grasp, and a heavy-lidded Natsu glared at his brother, annoyed to no end, as he pressed the phone to his ear.

"Hello? …Yeah, I'm Natsu. Sorry, I was sleepin'… Nice to meet you too, Levy! Well, sorta meet ya… No, no. It's not a problem. What's up?" Natsu paused to listen for a while, laughing now and again, and Gajeel thought how envious he was of his little brother's easy disposition. He'd already forgotten his exhaustion and had that sunny attitude of his shining in full effect. His happy eyes, however, slowly began to bulge out of his head as he continued to listen. "Well, tell her to calm down. I can be at the park in fifteen minutes. Yeah, my brother will drive me," he shot a desperate glance toward Gajeel, who was already busying himself with shaking his head, stamping his feet and crossing his arms in protest of the idea. "Yeah! Yeah, sure. Okay. Tell her again to just calm down, to breathe… Yeah, she's crazy," he laughed excitedly, said his goodbyes, and hung up.

"Fuck off thinkin' I'm takin' you to some damn park, I got work in an hour," Gajeel grumbled.

"That's exactly why you shouldn't have a problem with taking me. It's on the way to the shop anyway," Natsu reasoned. "And besides," he paused, scrambling around on his bed to get closer to the window and tear back the curtains to reveal to Gajeel exactly why everyone was in such a fuss.

"You take me to the park, and you get to see that as up close as you can get without a freakin' spaceship."

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><p><em><strong>AN: **All righty, so I'm gonna explain something. I did say that this would be a Gajevy-centric fic, but after some consideration, I've decided to focus on my four favorite ships. Before I go into further detail, however, I will say: this will be a short story. It's highly unlikely that it will exceed five or six chapters. There's no real tragic tale to tell or elaborate backstory to flesh out; it's really just happy fluff. So don't think that each ship is going to go through hell and back. That ain't happening. At least, not in this story._

_Now, to address the ships: this story will focus on Gajevy, Nalu, Bixanna, and Miraxus. For those wondering where the Miraxus and Nalu fluffs are, don't worreh. Next chapter will be a healthy, heaping helping of both. _

_Lastly, I'd like to thank you for following/favoriting this story. :) that makes me so warm and fuzzy inside. For future readers, please review! I love getting feedback - what you wish there was less of, more of, just right, etc. _

_Sidenote: I can't wait for Gajeel to be like "oh f u the grl from dat coffeh place" and Levy's gonna be all "yah dat wuz meh dude ur bad at phone talking" and stuff._

_See ya'll chickens l8r._

_xo syd_


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